Six years after the release of the remaster of Onimusha: Warlords, the re-release of Samurai's Destiny presents itself to the public as an operation substantially in line with the characteristics of its predecessor. Yes, the package is overall more complete and refined, thanks to the inclusion of a few more gems, but the overall value of the proposal is fundamentally the same. It is therefore a good way to get closer to the saga in view of the new chapter, taking advantage of the enjoyability of a gaming recipe that, net of the wrinkles on the face of the production, is supported by mechanics that are still valid, provided you face Jubei's journey with the right spirit.

Blades of Fire has a great merit: it is a game that innovates. And it does so with audacity, from the first minutes of the game, with a technical combat system and a crafting that requires strategy and attention to resources, statistics, enemies and progression. This is certainly the component around which the rest of the game was developed. And it shows: the care put into everything else is clearly less. Or rather, it is not always up to the ambitions of the game: to propose an epic story lasting 60-70 hours, with a combat system different from all the others and a crafting system that is never boring. Mercury Steam has not failed: it has simply only partially achieved the objective.

Deliver at all Costs, the debut on the scene of the Swedish Far Out Games, presents itself as a solid experience, capable of combining a gameplay aimed at the purest action, a notable environmental destructibility and retro setting with a good dose of originality, all clear indications of the crystalline talent of the newborn development company from Gothenburg. Thanks also to a convincing writing of the story and its characters, it is a title that, despite some limitations, deserves attention, especially considering the price at which it is proposed (we are talking about €29.99 on PC, Xbox and PlayStation). The only regret is for some naivety on the structural and content level that do not allow it to aspire to the qualitative heights it would have deserved.



RoadCraft is an interesting simulation compromise, which combines great attention to detail in models, times and settings, with the attempt to maximize the importance of the “task - completion - reward” mechanism. There is no need to refuel the vehicles, nor to worry about them breaking. It is almost more of a “simulation of a child builder’s imagination”, where everything is allowed and experimentation is a must. By involving other players online, distributing tasks and playing “role-playing”, the title’s playful peak is reached. However, those who experience RoadCraft alone will notice the hybrid nature which is not entirely realistic, nor “facilitated” enough. Saber’s title has nevertheless proven to be a rather efficient machine.

The Precinct has everything it needs to put on a great show, but it forgets the most important thing: entertainment. It starts with an intriguing idea and develops it through a solid procedural structure... which, however, begins to creak too quickly. The narrative is stripped down to the bare bones, the game world is fascinating but remains superficial, and the gameplay, despite some brilliant intuition, struggles to renew itself over time. And yet, there are moments in which everything seems to work: hair-raising chases, a well-crafted moral system and that pinch of satisfaction in enforcing the law - at least while it lasts. Those who want to immerse themselves in the guardian of law and order might find something interesting here. For everyone else, The Precinct risks turning into a long, monotonous patrol.

With Doom: The Dark Ages, id Software returns to the origins of the Doom Slayer with a gameplay recipe that straddles the past and the future, which takes up some of the classic features of the franchise and reworks them in accordance with the characteristics of the new setting, trying to maximize the intensity of the battles and the depth of the gameplay. Most of the additions and revisions work very well, and form the basis of a gameplay core that is extremely satisfying and multifaceted. The passages that most clearly distance themselves from this beating heart are also the most dissonant, but the average quality of the experience still stands at very high levels. Yes, perhaps The Dark Ages is a less organic product than the previous Eternal, but we find it impossible to free it from the threshold of excellence.

Revenge of the Savage Planet is a little gem. It's not a game that excels in any particular way, but an experience made up of many very solid, if watered-down, subsystems. The combat isn't technical, but it still manages to convince. The platforming doesn't have the complexity of the masterpieces of the genre, but it's still appreciated. The exploration isn't refined, but it still has some witty solutions and vibrant worlds. The plot isn't anything special, but it's embellished with a humor that constantly oscillates between nonsense and black humor. And it's precisely the latter that acts as a glue for the entire experience, transforming it from a set of more or less interconnected systems into a title of substance, which manages to provide a dozen hours (doubled, if you want to explore everything explorable) of healthy and carefree fun.

MotoGP 25 continues to improve accessibility, offering a more balanced and engaging experience. The new Arcade system allows you to be competitive straight away, without having to master every detail of MotoGP and go crazy at every turn to avoid falling. The Minimoto, Motard and Flat Track are a great addition - although a few more tracks wouldn't hurt, as well as the new features offered by Career that make it even more exciting and deep. The sound of the engines has been improved, while the bikes continue to impress with their beauty, with careful details and improved visual rendering thanks to UE5. Although the progress compared to last year is less incisive, MotoGP 25 confirms itself as the best starting point for those who want to immerse themselves in the wonderful bandwagon of the MotoGP.

Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree draws from the recipes of various chefs and throws everything into its cauldron. The elements are almost all in the right place; yet, it needs that extra pinch of originality to go above average. If the Metroidvania aspects are convincing, the same cannot be said of the artificial boss battles and a progression system that seems to travel behind the player's needs. Whether you are a fan of the genre or not, the offer proposed by Primal Game Studio remains a valid pastime with which to entertain yourself without great pretensions, especially if you are looking for a title of this type focused on narrative.

That Days Gone Remastered offers a great show in Unreal Engine is evident, but net of some graphic differences, such as the improved rendering of the night sections, we can also say the same of the original incarnation of the game. Without mincing words, the two versions of the open world adventure are certainly not identical but remain comparable. Having said this, Deacon fans might find the new Horde Assault mode interesting, which allows you to experience the highest gaming merits of the production in a few minutes, between hunting large groups of Freakers - now larger than ever! - roaring escapes on motorcycles and many main and support death tools to use in battle. Those who have always wanted to get closer to Days Gone and have not been able to do so until now, could seriously consider the offer of the remastered edition: it still offers the most valid and complete way to experience a great adventure of the PS4 era, set in an Oregon as rich in charm as it is lethal.

The surprise debut - no surprise - of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion coincides with the return to the market of a role-playing game that is nothing short of memorable, which marked a fundamental stage in the journey of the series and its genre. The one put together by Virtuos is an atypical remake, which tries to reconcile a twenty-year-old gaming soul with a brand new body. Both the soul and the body show some significant rough edges, but it is truly impossible not to appreciate the work done by the Singapore team, creators of a Cyrodiil that resembles the one in our memories more than the scenario actually explored at the beginning of the 2000s. This is no small feat, mind you.

Clair Obscur Expedition 33 is a monumental work, perfectly balanced in length and pace of play, with an engaging combat system and a progression system among the best in its category. Equipped with an exciting story, full of twists and a profound final message, it will bewitch anyone who decides to embark on Expedition 33. We wholeheartedly recommend it to any fan of "Japanese-style" RPGs.

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves does not bow to modernity, building a combat system strongly anchored to tradition that will delight all fans of the arcade era. The very pleasant feeling of being in front of a revised version of the fighting games "of the good old days" is only partially ruined by the unwelcome guest characters and rather poor single player modes. With multi-year support already made official and a first season pass completely free, we hope that the title will be able to carve out a niche for itself within the hyper-competitive market of two-dimensional fighting games. Good luck SNK!

The adjective that better than any other could describe Blue Prince is "immense". A procedural puzzle game, roguelite in nature, reinvented starting from the mechanics of board games and transformed into a videogame with an exciting exploratory factor, which invites you to take pen and paper to always have the clues needed to solve the puzzles. The challenges posed on the chessboard of the mansion of Mt. Holly are revealed naturally, allowing you to admire not only the extreme variety and elegance of the puzzles, many of which are directly connected to the game structure itself, but also an incredible quantity, at times disturbing, just like a full-bodied narration that is not afraid to transcend the limits of reality.

Bleach: Rebirth of Souls is a love letter to Tite Kubo's work and his legions of fans. By forgoing even the slightest competitive ambition, Tamsoft has managed to translate the spectacular and even unpredictable nature of Bleach's battles into playful terms, developing a noisy and strategically-focused combat system. Unfortunately, the story mode, the online infrastructure, the roster of playable characters, and even the balance leave much to be desired, but we are nevertheless convinced that the developer has succeeded in its main intent, which was to create a tie-in that fully respects the unique and unmistakable style of the license. Ultimately, Bleach: Rebirth of Souls may not be the video game adaptation that Bleach fans deserve and have been waiting for for two decades now, but so far it is the closest thing to it.

It's an exciting journey that of Star Overdrive, a game that, with all its structural limitations, has proven capable of exciting and entertaining, despite the seemingly insurmountable goal that the Roman team of Caracal has placed at the base of the project. It's true, there are some naivety that do not allow it to rise to the level of other great productions of the large Switch software library but it is certainly an excellent starting point for future works, as well as an important spotlight on the crystalline talent of the company. If you are looking for a title that knows how to enhance the exploration of an alien planet, immersed in a sci-fi context inspired by rock and enriched by a series of well-made gameplay and content ideas, the story of Bios and Nous could be for you, especially by virtue of the competitive price at which it is offered.

Without matching the quality and grandeur of other motorsport titles, Milestone has nevertheless made progress with Monster Energy Supercross 25. The game continues in the direction taken with the sixth episode, with improved AI, a physics engine enriched with Evolving Ruts technology, advanced graphics and a meticulous reproduction of the 2025 season of the star-spangled championship. However, Career struggles to make its mark, while the other modes have received only marginal refinements. The expected leap in quality of the series is, once again, postponed.

South of Midnight, all things considered, presents itself to the players as the most conventional of action/adventure games, based on a pleasant, if somewhat repetitive, gameplay structure and supported by refined writing and first-rate artistic direction. It's a shame that the presence of some naivety on the design front does not allow it to reach peaks of excellence, especially if you consider the care instilled in setting up an audiovisual framework of this caliber. More form than substance, therefore, but if you are looking for a good title in which to invest a dozen hours of lightheartedness, perhaps letting yourself be transported by a story capable of touching the strings of the soul, then the new work of Compulsion Games could be for you.

Atomfall has style to spare. We are not faced with a simple "British" re-proposal of titles like Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. On the contrary, the work by Rebellion has a soul all its own and a strong character, which could lay the foundations for an excellent IP to carry forward alongside Sniper Elite. The jewel in the crown of the game is the very well-crafted narrative section, with a story (and a lore) to reconstruct trying to unravel a tangle of leads, clues and whispers that come from everywhere. The gameplay has been designed to give the player the greatest possible freedom, putting aside the traditional progression systems in favor of a dynamic management of the skill trees and inventory. The only shame is for some uncertainty from a technical point of view, connected to the (controversial) choice of using a proprietary graphics engine that now needs to be modernized.

Assassin's Creed Shadows marks the continuation, and perhaps the end, of the cycle that began with Origins. However, the episode set in Japan also represents the downward spiral, in terms of quality of some components of the gameplay and content offering, of a structural model that is starting to feel the weight of the years. Shadows is a game that wants to please everyone and that does everything more or less well, but without truly excelling in anything, and - unfortunately - without leaving its mark. The epic of shinobi and samurai leaves open several glimmers of hope for the future. But we hope that, both with DLC tied to the story of Naoe and Yasuke and with the next episodes, the saga can truly start again, rediscovering the ability to amaze us.

Xenoblade Chronicles X was already a monumental game in the last decade, and yet the guys at Monolith Soft have managed to further elevate its quality. The reworked graphics have given us polygonal models that are finally expressive, harmonious in their movements and embellished with lighting that can bring out the details, while the quick reload and other small adjustments made to the combat system have definitively banished the annoying "spectator effect" that the product had inherited from the first Xenoblade Chronicles, ensuring this time that the user is always involved in the combat phases. Between new secondary missions, three additional playable characters, Skells never seen before and above all a rich portion of extra story, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition represents an unmissable opportunity to return to the planet Mira or at least explore it for the first time.

Quotation forthcoming.

All things considered, the 2025 edition of WWE 2K picks up where its illustrious predecessor left off, continuing to build on the solid foundations laid last year. The gameplay system, despite some historical issues related to multiple matches, is even more robust and fun than usual; the content endowment is, as per tradition, mammoth and generally of a good level, apart from some small qualitative declines in the selection of matches included in the Showcase or in the drafting of the dialogues of My Rise; the visual realization alternates genuinely impressive moments with others in which the need for extra refinements is evident. In essence, if you are passionate about this spectacular sport-entertainment or are simply looking for a title in which to brawl with your friends in the name of fun, WWE 2K25 may be the right choice. So, lace up your boots: the belt will not be won alone!

After the disappointing Atelier Marie Remake and the questionable decision by the development team to make the 25th episode of the main series a gacha game for mobile devices, the future of the Atelier series seems uncertain. With Atelier Yumia in particular, Gust Corporation has perhaps taken more risks than it should have, and we believe that not all bets have been won. The new action-style combat system lacks the strategic component and depth that had made us appreciate the Secret Trilogy so much, and even the process of alchemical synthesis seems cumbersome and unsatisfying. The product recovers a few points thanks to the exploration, now richer and more multifaceted than ever, and an engaging narrative plot, as well as characterized by mature themes. Paradoxically, Atelier Yumia could really captivate those who have never frequented the series, while there is the risk that historical fans will struggle to accept the change of direction desired by the Japanese studio and above all the abandonment of the carefree atmosphere that has always differentiated the brand from other JRPGs. Hoping that Atelier Yumia remains an isolated experiment, we await the completely offline episode of Atelier Resleriana also due out in 2025, which at least on the artistic front seems much more promising.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Early Days Collection is a valuable re-release of games from the dawn of one of the most famous card games in the world. The package is rich in terms of gameplay, while the extra materials leave a little to be desired. Good instead in terms of the “quality of life” of the collection, with tricks and enhancements that allow you to avoid the most tedious parts of the original titles and focus on what really matters: the duels. Duels that are the beating heart of at least ten of the works present in the re-release, but which are banned in a couple of more experimental titles, whose presence alone provides freshness to the proposal. If you are a fan of the first hour of the anime, manga or the original card game, this appointment with the past could be for you.

Split Fiction is a true triumph, a priceless title that not only manages to replicate the qualitative heights reached by the Game of the Year 2021 but surpasses them by ascending to even more astonishing levels of inventiveness. It is a title capable of renewing itself minute after minute and maintaining an enviable freshness even after several hours of gameplay, all seasoned with a first-rate artistic direction and impeccable technical realization. Whether you are a fan of Hazelight Studios' production, whether you loved It Takes Two or whether you simply love video games in the purest sense of the word, this is an experience you will not want to miss.

Two Point Museum is a big step forward for Two Point Studios, which intertwines sharp and interesting RPG features in the management mechanics, with expeditions, resource management and objectives to complete to unlock new locations. A work of great finesse that with the constant exploration of the map will end up creating a game within the game, increasing the proposed content and allowing us to increase the hours of fun beyond measure. The only unwelcome note is having imitated the lootboxes in the recovery of relics, but it is a sin that we can overlook.

Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered is a product similar in objectives to the previous work of Aspyr Media and, due to some of its limitations, it may not be appealing to new generations of players. That said, net of the critical issues related to the original experiences, the work done by the developers is more than appreciable and will delight all fans with a few more years on their shoulders eager to get back to grips with the classic iterations of Tomb Raider.